Originally posted by Jolly Roger Too: ... I suppose that until the advent of antiseptic practices and penicillin more soldiers died of wound complications than from the horrible wounds themselves....
INdeed. Don't forget the diseases that swept armed forces camps where large quantities of humanity live in situations with poor hygiene. WWI was the first military conflict where more soldiers died of battle injuries than of disease.
Most soldiers in centuries past did not die a 'glorious death on the battlefield' but died coughing, wheezing, crapping, suffering delusions brought on by fevers and the like...
